


Burial at Sea: Episode 3

by Lewdist



Category: BioShock, BioShock Infinite
Genre: Happy Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-25
Updated: 2014-04-25
Packaged: 2018-01-20 17:55:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1519883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lewdist/pseuds/Lewdist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A different perspective on the events of Burial at Sea that give new context and a proper emotional sendoff to Booker and Elizabeth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The sea of doors

The light of a swinging lamp pierces the darkness as a lone figure rows in silence. His passenger, a woman who resembles the man in all but gender, stares off into the distance. Their voyage continues in silence for some time, with the occasional meeting of their eyes being the only form of communication between the two.

Finally the man speaks up. "If it's all the same to you, I've grown quite tired of this mask."

"Indulge yourself, brother."

"And I shall." The man replies, retracting the oars of their small wooden boat. "We simply cannot seem to stop ourselves from interfering with the DeWitts."

"They are our cross to bear."

The man waves his hand dismissively. "Be that as they may, I'm finished. What we are doing to the girl is far too cruel."

"To leave her as she is would be crueler still."

"Yes, but she is a monster of our creating."

"Quite, and we must see our experiment all the way through."

"Is that all the girl is, an experiment?"

To this she smiles. "Of course not. Like you I've failed to be completely objective in the matter."

"Then what's the point?" He asks, visibly annoyed.

"Dear brother, the point is to atone."

"Atone?"

"Yes, atone. The thought experiment is over. We must clean up after ourselves."

"And all it takes is dragging the girl through hell one more time."

At this final statement both figures once again fell silent.


	2. Rapture

I open the door fevered panic. Anna, she had to be there. She couldn't just be-

Gone. The crib was empty. Had it all been for nothing? Was this all just some hellish cycle? Damned to repeat these events again and again. Damned to face my failings as a father and as a man. Damned to watch Elizabeth suffer both by my hand and through my inaction? My heart ached with the confusion.

A voice from behind shakes me to my core. "You're lucky, Mr. DeWitt. Not many people survive their own death."

"Paradoxes are messy things." A feminine voice adds.

I turn to face the pair and steady myself against the doorframe. Why are they here? Is this just the cycle repeating itself? Are they here to mock me? "Lutece?"

"The very same." The masculine voice replies.

"Where is Anna?" I demand, righting myself.

"A good question, Mr. DeWitt."

The woman, Rosalind, extends her hand. "We shall take you to her."

"Wait." I say, withdrawing his hand. "I have questions."

Rosalind frowns and steps forward. "I'm quite sure, but we have work to do." At this she extends her hand again, more insistently this time.

My temper begins to flair. "What is all this? Where is she?"

"First you must play your part."

"My part?"

A small service radio is shoved into my hands. "The girl must have something to rely on. But she must believe she has nobody."

"What do you mean? Just tell me what's going on."

"The girl has been set down a dark path. Try as she might, she cannot escape the cycle of violence."

"That is where you come in." Robert adds.

You want me to-"

"To guide her. Be her inner voice when she needs you the most."

"But this is something she must do on her own. She can never know that it's you."

"Ho-what do I do?"

"It's simple, pull up a chair and wait."

I look around in confusion, but sure enough there's a small stool by his feet.

"And I just wait?" I ask, taking a seat on the stool.

"You could play the guitar if you like." Robert suggests.

As he's about to ask what Robert means he realizes that he's holding a guitar. Not just any guitar, but his old guitar from his military days. Those scratches on the neck left no doubt in my mind.

"How the hell do you keep doing that?"

But as he asks an even more fantastic display took place. In one instant he was standing in his office with the Luteces. Now, now he was somewhere completely different, yet strangely familiar. This architecture, Elizabeth had taken him here before. A city under the sea, is this where Elizabeth was?

As if in answer the room suddenly shifts. Metal rusts, lights dim, pipes break. The room aged years in mere seconds. Then I noticed the figures, several men dragging a corpse away. A young woman laying on the ground. She was hurt, he could tell that. Then it struck him: the woman, that was Elizabeth.

Suddenly I become aware of the fact that the scene around him was playing out in real time. But before he can react a hand touches his shoulder reassuringly. "They can't see us. The girl can see you, but that is the extent of it."

Elizabeth cries out as one of the men drags off a small child. Is that why she's here? Who is that child?

"Repeat what I say to you. No questions." Rosalind commands, urgency dripping from every word. "Say 'Tell him you can get him back.'"

"Tell him you can get him back."

Elizabeth's voice was chocked with confusion. "Booker? Oh, Booker...What? I don't understand what...How-"

"Say 'I can get you back to Rapture.'"

"What?"

My impatience rose. She was going to get herself killed asking so many questions. "Just say it."

I watch the exchange between Elizabeth and this Atlas character in pained silence. Finally Rosalind provides him with a name. "Tell him, 'Suchong.'"

"Suchong."

"And how do you know that slant-eyed wonder?" Atlas inquires, stalking over to Elizabeth.

"You're his lab assistant."

"I'm his lab assistant." Elizabeth responds confidently.

Atlas, he had met men like him before. The army, the gambling halls, they were always the same. A common street thug made a tyrant by an ounce of power.

Again Rosalind prompts him. "That's between me..."

"That's between me..."

"And the slant."

"And the slant." My hairs rise as she continues. She's going off script, she's going to get herself in trouble. "But if I do this, the girl goes with me." Who is this girl?

"Little sisters are worth their weight in gold. She's not up for negotiation."

"Last time I checked, back in the city they were making Little Sisters by the dozen."

"That's a right fairy tale you've dreamed up, sister. But if you're lying I can just as well kill ya tomorrow. Down here we got nothin' but time." With that Atlas slides a service radio over to Elizabeth, much like the one Rosalind gave him. "In case I need to get a hold a' ya." Atlas turns, but then thinks better of it. "If you see suchong, tell him: Atlas says he hasn't forgotten 'im."

My blood boils as one of Atlas' men strikes Elizabeth knocking her out cold. It takes every ounce of willpower not to rush to her side. But I don't.

Why? I ask. Why not go over there and tell her the truth, why not stop the man when he saw him raise his fist against her? Truthfully I don't fully know. But if playing this part could save Elizabeth, then so be it.


	3. Columbia

A delusion, that's all I was. A part of her mind feeding her the information she needed to know. That's the story I fed Elizabeth as she waded through the ruins of Rapture.

Truth be told she relied on herself more than she ever relied on me. I gave advice where prompted and did my job, but she was the one who acted. That shouldn't surprise me, but I guess a part of me still thought of her as a child.

A gunshot rang out, jolting me out of my introspection. A Vox rebel had spotted Elizabeth and was taking pot-shots at her. Elizabeth was quick to find cover, good girl. From there I could tell she was weighing her options. Leaning out of cover Elizabeth shot out a small arrow that gave off a loud ringing noise, causing the young Vox woman to run out from cover. Seizing the opportunity Elizabeth shot her right below her ribcage with a tranquilizer arrow. I wanted to say something, but I held back.

I breathed a sigh of relief as she opened the door to Fink's private elevator. Once she got that sample she could get herself back to that Suchong guy, maybe he'd even let her use the machine. Maybe that was the Lutece's plan? But then-

"Booker, you there?"

I scrambled for the radio. "...I miss you. You were the only one who ever...you were my only friend, Booker..."

Rosalind gave me what I chose to interpret as a pitying smile and told me what I needed to say.

"Booker?" Elizabeth's voice was weak over the radio.

"I'm not even here. I'm a projection of your own-

"Could you humor me then, please?"

Rosalind broke eye contact.

I pause, gritting my teeth. Finally I respond. "I'm sure Booker would miss you too."

I threw the service radio against the wall in a fit of anger. God damn it, god damn it all.

"Those aren't cheap, you know." Rosalind quipped with infuriating smugness.

"Dear sister, perhaps humor won't serve us at this juncture."

"Just leave me alone for a minute, okay?"


	4. Reunion

A transorbital lobotomy. I screamed in rage as I watched what Atlas did. My knuckles were raw and bloody from punching the wall. Robert tried to talk me down, and then restrained me physically. I'll give him an A for effort.

It was only when Rosalind spoke up that I managed to calm myself. "This is what the girl wants."

I didn't understand it. Even when they explained what Elizabeth was doing my mind wouldn't accept it. They talked about cleaning up mistakes and repenting for sins. But it didn't make sense. Elizabeth wasn't a killer, she wasn't a monster driven by revenge. That's not Elizabeth.

But it was, wasn't it? I heard the hate in her voice when she talked about Comstock. That's the kind of hate that kills. They tell me this is the only way, and I play my part. Elizabeth will beat this, she's no monster.

I try and tell myself that. But as I watch her make the walk down the dark corridor to Atlas and his gang I begin to feel a knot in my stomach. A sudden realization.

"What's she doing?" I ask, turning back to the Luteces.

"Doing what she must." Robert says matter-of-factly.

Shaking my head I grab Robert's coat. "No, no this isn't right."

"This is what the girl wants, and what we've worked for." He replies coldly."

"You included." Rosalind adds.

"I-no, this isn't what I wanted." I plead with the Luteces. "I'm killing her!"

"You're absolving her of her sins."

"Please, please just take me there. I-I'll stop him! We can save her!"

Rosalind is as impassive as ever. "I'm afraid that she must do this on her own."

"This is what the girl wants."

As they say this Atlas strikes her once and again in the head. I watch the blood flow from her wound. I watch Atlas and his men leave her to her fate, one of them even laughs.

I stand by and do nothing as the girl comforted Elizabeth in her last moments. And I stand by and do nothing as the life left Elizabeth's eyes. I stand by and don't do a god damn thing, like I was told to do.

"It's time, brother."

"The slate is clean. Here is your reward, paid in full."

"I-" Suddenly I find myself in Suchong's office.

As I fall to my knees I heave, trying to expel food and water that isn't there. My mind is tearing itself apart. So this was their plan? That's it? Elizabeth dies and I'm left to rot in this prison? I raged on the inside, trying to cope with the the loss of the only person who meant a damn to me anymore and the betrayal of the two people I thought could save her.

In my anger I fail to notice the green glow right in front of me until it had reached a blinding brightness. "What the-"

Raising an arm I shield my eyes, waiting for the light to subside. And when it does: Elizabeth. It was Elizabeth. No blood, no wounds. Just laying there like she up and took a nap.

I scramble over to her and took her pulse. She was alive. I didn't understand it, but she was alive. Choking out a cry half-way between a laugh and a cry I remove her from the machine and set her on a table that I hastily clear with a free hand. "Paid in full." I whisper under my breath.

Slowly she opens her eyes, struggling to adjust to the light. As she does a look of realization and confusion spreads across her face. I  
manage to pull myself together just enough to greet her with a warm smile. She deserves it.

"I-are...are you?" Her voice comes out a sob as she reaches up and feels the stubble on my cheek.

Taking her into my arms I reply with an unsteady voice. "Real enough."


End file.
